SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA IN COUNCIL Vs. UNDE RAJAHA RAJE SIR RAJA VELUGOTI SRI RAJAGOPALA KRISHNA YACHENDRA, BAHADUR VARU, PANCHAHAZAR MUNSABDAR, MAHA RAJAH OF VENKATAGIRI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal from a decree of the District Judge of Nellore declaring that the defendant, the Secretary of State for India in Council, is not entitled to resume or assess to public revenue inams or lakhirai lands other than village service inams enfranchised under Madras Act, II of 1894 within the Venkatagiri Zemindari, or to any reversionary right in such inams and restraining the defendant and his officers from holding any investigation into such inams and dealing with them under the Inam Rules or resuming and assessing them to public revenue. The main questions in the case* were, whether these inams were included in the grant to the plaintiff s predecessor by the sannad Exhibit C, dated 24th August 1802, whether, if so, the grant was invalid as opposed to the provisions of Regulation XXV of 1802 and lastly whether in any case the question was not res judicata in favour of the plaintiff. The circumstances which led up to the grant of the sannad Exhibit C are clearly stated in the judgment of the District Judge and appear more fully from the report of Mr. Stratton, Collector of the Western Poligars Peishcush, dated 14th July 1801, (Exhibit B 5) and the proceedings of the Special Commission (Exhibit B 22) of the 12th August 1802. The proposals of the Special Commission were accepted by Government and sannads were issued to the plaintiff s predecessor and three other Zemindars on 24th August 1802.

(2.) Briefly the facts were that the Zemindars of Venkatagiri, Kalahasti, Bommarazupolliem, (as the Karvetnagar Estate was then called) and Sidapore had held their estates under the Nawabs subject to the payment of a light peishcush which how-ever was liable to enhancement by the exaction of nuzzers and subject to the further obligation of maintaining a large military force. The treaty with the Nawab of 1792, by which the management of the revenues of the Carnatic was assigned to the Company, contained a provision restraining the Company from raising the peishcush of these Poligars.

(3.) In Exhibit I, dated 4th September 1799 the Government of Madras addressed a letter to the Board of Revenue in which they announced their intention of introducing a permanent settlement with the Zemindar3 whom it was intended to constitute proprietors of their estates as far as practicable On the same principles as had been adopted in the Permanent Settlement of Bengal in 1793 and directed the Board to prepare the necessary materials for effecting such settlements. On this Mr. Stratton, then Collector of the Western Poligars Peishcush, presented to the Board of Revenue a report, dated 14th July 1801 which supplied all the materials asked for for the purpose of introducing the permanent settlement into these four Zemindaris and contained full information as to the various classes of inams to be found therein. These inams he divided into six classes, two of which the Amaram and Kattubadi he stated were mostly held on conditions of military service and were resumable by the Zemindars at pleasure, while the others which include those with which we are now concerned, were resumable only for sufficient reason (paragraph 13). It is important to note that in paragraphs 94 and 95 he distinctly raised the question how such inams were to be dealt with. This report was considered, not by the Board of Revenue but by a Special Commission presided over by a member of the Government, which in Ex. B 22, dated 12th August 1802, submitted proposals to the Governor-in-Council for the settlement of these Zemindaris. They began by showing that the existence of the military dependants of the Zemindars was incompatible with the introduction of order and civil government (paragraph 16) and proceeded to submit a proposal for the commutation of the military service on lines laid down in paragraph 31 and the following paragraphs. In the case of Venkatagiri the addition of the military expenses of the Zemindar would have increased the peishcush from pagodas 21,673 to pagodas 148,996; but, as the Zemindar would not be able at once to avail himself of the revenues from the Amaram and Kattubadi lands which had been granted on military service, it was proposed to fix the total payment in respect of peishcush and military contribution at pagodas 1,20,000 and to reduce this still further to pagodas 1,11,508 as compensation for the revenue arising from sayer, spirits and salt which it was the intention to retain under the administration of the Company. The future peishcush was thus arrived at by taking the old peishcush pagodas 21,673 and adding a contribution for the abolition of military service. This, as pointed out in paragraph 37, was very different from the system generally adopted, of fixing the peishcush at twothirds of the gross revenues of the Zemindari which would have increased the future peishcush to pagodas 162,840. The proposals of the Special Commission thus covered the case of the Amaram and Kattubadi inams, but said nothing as to the other classes of inams to which Mr. Stratton had called attention. It may however be taken that if the Special Commission had considered that these inams ought to be reserved they would have said so. The Government of Madras in Exhibit E, dated 24th August 1802 adopting in full the proposals of the Special Commission resolved that the military services of the Western Poligars should be commuted for an equivalent in money and that the amount of the equivalent should be as proposed by the Special Commission. Effect was given to the decision of Government in the four sannads which were drawn up bearing the same date and it is on the construction of these sannads that the question before us very largely turns.